Oct. 15, 2008
Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.brown@nasa.gov
Nancy Neal-Jones/Bill Steigerwald
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0039/5017
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov
william.a.steigerwald@nasa.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-207
NASA TO DISCUSS MISSION TO STUDY SUN'S WEAKENING PROTECTIVE BUBBLE
GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA will hold a media teleconference on Friday,
Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. EDT, to preview the Interstellar Boundary
Explorer, or IBEX, mission. The spacecraft may confirm if the sun's
protective bubble surrounding our solar system, called the
heliosphere, is about to shrink and weaken. IBEX also will be the
first spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking
place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space.
The heliosphere acts as a shield for our solar system, warding off
most of the galactic cosmic rays. Recent data indicate the solar
wind's global pressure is the lowest seen since the beginning of the
space age.
IBEX is set to launch Oct. 19 from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the
Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Panelists will be:
- David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research
Institute in San Antonio
- Nathan Schwadron, co-investigator and IBEX Science Operations Center
lead at Boston University
- Stephen Fuselier, co-investigator and IBEX-Lo Sensor lead at
Lockheed-Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
- Eric Christian, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Reporters should call 1-888-323-5257 and use the passcode "IBEX" to
participate in the teleconference. International media should call
1-415-228-4881. Supporting information for the briefing will be
available at the start of the teleconference on the Web at:
http://www.nasa.gov/ibex
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